Over rated, it's a liquorish & licorice (sp?) tasting. My smuggled bottle never got drank, even at parties, threw it out. Nobody will die, and it would be difficult to consume a lot of it, unless you were a desperato.

I brought the real deal home with me when I visited Spain. It's a sweet liqueur. You won't go blind or suddenly go tearing off on a murder spree. That was all a myth because the stuff (the real stuff) is made with wormwood (you can't get it here). Actually, during the time that the myth was born, everyone was getting drunk ALL THE TIME because there was no drinkable water – so you can imagine the geniuses who came up with the story….

I brought the real stuff back with me once as well – I drank it with my fiancé and one of his friends. We all got drunk but it was like if we drank any other hard alcohol, nothing crazy happened. Although my fiance's friend had too much and threw up on our floor

You're not missing out, Enty. It tastes like licorice and requires a whole assembly of spoon, sugar and flame. Which, yes, I think is way too much pomp and effort when compared to beer, wine or other liquors.

I don't think you can find any that is actually hallucinogenic unless you go to remote places in Eastern Europe (and even that might just be urban legend).

I do recommend "Absinthe", the Vegas show at Caesar's palace, though. Sort of a throwback Cirque du Soleil with really (like, really, *really*) vulgar language and some burlesque.

Bringing me back to my kickin' it days circa 1993-6 up in here! Bad memories of Boones Strawberry Hills, Mad Dog 20 20, and lets not forget about the Cisco!! Beggars can't be choosers & we were still underage!! Good times.Never had absinthe tho…

I LOVE absinthe. A few years ago it went from forbidden to allowed in my country. The makers had to change the formula a little bit and after that we were able to buy it. I often use it as a remedy against the common cold.

Deborah Frueh is correct. One person went on a murderous rampage and they blamed it on Absinthe so it was banned. They forgot to take into account EVERYTHING else he drank before said rampage. Amazingly I've had Boone's Farm, MD 20/20 and just about everything else but not Absinthe.

And I never want to drink 151 again! Worst night of my life practically.

If you can "hallucinate" off absinthe you have a very active imagination.

"Didn't Hemmingway, Fitzgerald and their crowd drink that in Paris back in the 1920's?"

Yes. Hemingway (note spelling) hyped up the voodoo myths around absinthe in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Funny how he could romanticize the relatively tame absinthe yet avoid hashish. But then, marijuana was considered a "colored's drug" to Americans at the time.l

The stuff in Eastern Europe can vary wildly in toxicity. First time I tried a couple of shots and was violently ill for a solid sixteen hours. Not regular alcohol sick, but couldn't even sit or stand to get to a sink. I can do a dozen whiskey shots without puking; this was something else entirely.

I wouldn't say be afraid of it, just try it in extreme moderation until you have a sense of how strong your brand is, and how well your system can take it. I learned to dilute it with ice and water in order to avoid getting sick from that batch again.

I also wouldn't say it made me hallucinate, but I don't get a booze buzz from it either. It makes me feel foggy.

The Czech and Eastern European stuff is not traditional absinthe and setting it aflame is a gimmicky trend.

My husband drinks it all the time and he says the buzz is a little smoother than the usual alcoholic buzz. He says it reminds him of Vicodin; more of a high than a drunk, and he doesn't feel it the next day.

I have tried it at a party. The hostess had a fountain and we did the whole shebang. Good stuff! I love black licorice and find both absinthe and Jager tasty, though don't really get a huge buzz from either.

It was the thujones from the wormwood infusion that supposedly caused the various "evil" effects of absinthe, IIRC, and modern absinthe contains little or no thujones, at least in the US. So it's no longer the 'real thing'. My apologies to B. Profane if I misspelled anything above.

Years ago at a Yale Club event in San Francisco, I met the guy who wrote the book about absinthe, Barnaby Conrad III. (We're both Yale grads.)

He also wrote a book about The Martini. I told him that I had never had a martini, and he offered to serve me my first one. Then never called me.

I have since lost my martini virginity, and did it in the best possible way. After a celebration of the life of the late Herb Caen, San Francisco's beloved three dot journalist, who famously called vodka "Vitamin V" – I stopped in at the Buena Vista Cafe with my dog and had the most amazing vodka martini. OMG. It was so good I've never had another one. I don't want to spoil the memory.

But about BC III – a minor celebrity scion of a minor celebrity family, and doesn't follow up on his offers so – pfft on him.

As for absinthe, it's no longer banned in the USA…though what you can buy legally here is no longer the old-timey absinthe either.

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